Yorkdale Shopping Centre reopens Friday after shooting

Yorkdale Shopping Centre reopened on Friday morning, one day after Toronto police said two gunshots were fired following an altercation between two groups of men.

Officers were called to the mall for the sound of gunshots and confirmed a discharge in the area just before 3 p.m. on Thursday.

The mall was evacuated and locked down as police proceeded to collect evidence as part of their investigation.

Police say there was an altercation between two groups of men, at least three on each side, and at some point, one of the individuals discharged a firearm at least twice.

Officers say the incident happened on the south-east corner of the mall. They spoke to witnesses as well as collected video from witnesses and stores.

Police are looking for two suspects, one is described as a black male in his 20s wearing a black hoodie and jeans. The second suspect is described as a skinny male in his 20s, around 5 foot nine inches with a black handgun.

Toronto police confirm no injuries have been reported.

EMS says they have treated three patients for distress and one was transferred to hospital.

Toronto’s mayor said he was relieved no one was injured in the mall shooting.

“Whether it is Yorkdale Mall or anywhere else in Toronto, people should not have to worry about gun violence breaking out,” John Tory said in a statement. “There are too many guns available to criminals in the city and I am determined to end that with the help of our police and our government partners.”

The incident was the latest in a string of high-profile shootings in the city this year. In July two people were killed in a rampage in Toronto’s Greektown, a month earlier two young girls were wounded in a shooting at a playground, and days later a woman on her way home from a funeral died in a drive by-shooting police called indicative of a “street gang subculture.”

680NEWS’ Amber LeBlanc was inside Yorkdale when she heard the fire alarm go off.

“There was an underlying panic inside of the mall and I was curious because it was just a fire alarm. But I was with one of my firends and she said shes never had to evacuate a store when a fire alarm has gone off at Yorkdale so I knew it was something different.”

Yorkdale remained closed for the rest of the day to allow for police to investigate. Store managers and employees were eventually allowed back in to collect their belongings and close up the stores.

Beck Taxi operations manager Kristine Hubbard told 680NEWS it was next to impossible to enter the mall parking lot as people were trying to leave in their vehicles.

“We can’t get drivers in and we can’t help get people out. It’s a very sort of helpless feeling, it’s terrible” Hubbard said. “Someone called here in tears and I can see that she’s on her way now in a taxi and it took us 30 minutes to get to her and we weren’t even at the Yorkdale site.”

Lauren Chan said she rushed into an elevator down to the parking lot after hearing gunshots while shopping with a friend.

“We were walking from the Indigo side of the mall towards the Nordstrom side of the mall and we heard multiple shots. I saw a huge crowd of people running away from the direction we were walking.”

Files from The Canadian Press were used in this report